The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-06-16

of Turkey to his feast; the emperor or GtS-
many was glad to have our minister, George !
Bancroft, sit down with him at his table; but |
tell me, We who know most of the worlds his !
tory, what other king ever asked tire aban- |
doned and the forlorn, and the wretched, and |
the outcast to come and sit down beside him!
Oh, wonderful invitation You can take it
to-day and stand at the head of the darkest
alley in all this city and say: "Come! Clothes
for your rags, salve for your sores, throne
for your eternal reigning." A Christ that
talks like that, and acts like that, and pardons
like that-do you wonder that Stephen stood
looking at him? | bope to spend eternity do
ing the same thing. I must see him. | must
look upon that face once clouded with my sin,
but now radiant with my pardon. want to
touch that hand that knocked of my
shaclles l want to hear that voice which
pronounced my deliverance. Behold him,
little children, for if you live to three score
years and ten you will see none so fair. Be-
hold him, ye aged ones, for be only can shine
through the dimneSs of your failing eyesight
Behold him. earth; behold him, heayenl
What moment when all the nations or the
saved shall gather around Christ! All faces
that way; all thrones that way, gazing on
Jesus.
His worth, if all the nations knew.
pass on now, and look at Stephen stoned
The world has always wanted to get rid OF
good men, Their very life is an assault upon
wclledness. Out with Stephen through the
gates of the city. Down with him over the
precipices. Let every man come up and drop
a stone upon his head But these men did not
so much kill Stephen as they killed them
selves. Every stone rebounded upon them.
While these murderers were transfixed by the
scorn of all good men, Stephen lives in the
admiration of ali Christians. Stephen stoned;
but Stephen alive So all good men must be
pelted. All who will live godly in Christ
Jesus must suffer persecution. 1t is no eulogy
of a man to say that everybody likes him.
Show me any one who is doing all his duty to
state or church and will show you scores of
men who utterly abhor him.
If all men speak well of you it is because
you are either laggard or q dolt. If q
steamer makes rapid progress through the
waves the water will boil and foam all around
it, Brave soldiers of Jesus Christ will hear
the carbines click. When see man with
voice and money and influence all on the
right side, and some carcature him and some
sneer at him and some denounce him, and
men who pretend to be actuated by right
motives conspire to cripple him, to
cast him out, to destroy him, say: "Stephen
stoned When | see a man III some great
moral or religious reform battling against
grog shops, exposing wickedness in high
places, by active means trying to purify the
church and better the worlds estate, and I
! find that the newspapers anathemize him, and
men, even good men, oppose him and de-
nounce him, because, though he does good,
he does not do it in their way, say; "Stephen
stoned" The world, with infinite spite, took
after John Frederick Oberlin, and Robert
Moffat, and Paul, and Stephen of the text,
But you notice, my friends, that while they
| assaulted him they did not succeed really in
| killing him. You1may assault a good man,
| but you cannot kill him. On the day of his
| death, Stephen spoke before few people in
! the Sanhedrim this Sabbath morn he adj
| dresses all Christendom. Paul, the apostle
stood on Mars Hill addressing q handful of
philosophers who knew not SO much about
science as a modern school girl. To-day he
| talks TO all the millions of Christendom about
4 the wonders of justification and the glories
of resurrection. John Wesley was howled
down by the mob to whom he preached, ard
they threw bricks at him. and they denounced
him, and iostled him, and they spat upon him,
and yet to-day, in all lands, he is admitted to
be the great father of Methodisn. Booths
bullet vacated the presidential chair, but
from that spot of coagulated blood on the
floor in the box of Fords theatre there sprang
up the new life Of nation. Stephen stoned;
but Stephen alive.
Pass on now, and see Stephen In his dying
prayer. His first thought was not how the
| stones hurt his head, nor what would become
of his body. His first thought was about his
spirit Lord Jesus, receive my spirit The
| Sfa ba
black cap being drawn down over his head
before the execution, may grimace about the
| future; but you and have no shame in con-
Tossing some anxiety about where we are 60
ing to come out. You are not all body. There
Is within you a soul l see it CLEAN from your
eyes today, and see it irradiating your coun-
tenance. Sometimes am abashed before an
audience, not because | come under your ply
sical eyesight but because l realize the truth
that | stand before SO many immortal spirits
The probability is that your body will at last
find sepulture in some of the cemeteries that
surround this city. There is no dohbt but
that you will will be able to pillow your head
under the maple. or the Norway spruce, Oh
the cypress, or the blossoming fir; but this
spirit about which Stephen prayed, what
direction will that take! What guide will
escort it, What gate will open to receive
|
After it has got beyond the light of our sun
will there be torches lighted for it the rest o
the way? Will the soul have to trave
through long deserts before it reaches tht
good land? If we should lose our pathway
will there be castle at whose gate we may
ask the way to the citys o, this mysteriou!
spirit within us! 1t has two wings, but it i:
in cage now. 1t is locked fast to keep it
but let the door Of this cage open the least
and that soul is off. Eagles wing could no
catch it, The lightnings are not swift enough
to take up with it. When the soul leaves the
body it takes fifty worlds at a bound. AnC
have I no anxiety about it? Have you nC
anxiety about it! l do not care what you d(
with my body when my soul is gone, o.
whether you believe in cremation or inhuma
ton. shall sleep just as well in wrapping
of sackcloth as in satin lined with eagle
down. But my soul-before | leave thi
house this morning will find out where it i
| going to land. Thank God for the intimatiol
, of my text, that when we die Jesus takes us
) | That answers ali questions for me. Wha
though there were massive bars between her
and the city of light; Jesus could remov
them. What though there were great Sa
haras of darkness. Jesus could illume them
What though get weary on the way; Chris
could lift me on his omnpotept shoulder
j What though there were chasms to cross; hi
! hand could transport me. Then let Stephen
! prayer be my dying itany-"Lord Jesus, re
, ceive my spirit" 1t may be in that hour we Wi
+ be too feeble TO say long prayer; it may b
we win not be able to say the Lords prayer, fo
a it has seven petitions Perhaps we may b
q too feeble even to say the infant prayer GU
a mothers taught us, which John Quinc
+ Adams. 20 years of age, said every nigh
when he put his head upon his pillow;
n Now lay me down to Sleep
n Ipray the Lord my soul to keep.
n We may be too feeble to employ either c
II these familiar forms; but this prayer c
StcpheN is SO short, is so concise, is so earnes
+ is so comprehensive, we surely will be abl
, to say that: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
u Oh, if that prayer is answered, how sweet
h will be to diet This woI Id is clever enoug
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